New Northamptonshire yoga cafe owners launch vegetarian takeaway menu amid lockdown

The owners of a brand new yoga studio in Roade, which opened in December, had only just opened their café when the government announced the lockdown.

Joint proprietor of The Roade House Paul Bullwright, 51, said: “The café had been open for barely six days when the Government announced the UK’s lockdown on March 23 and my wife and I thought ‘what are we going to do now?'.

Paul and his wife Maxine, 49, had bought the former 11 bedroom hotel in 2019 with the vision of turning it into a plush yoga café offering yoga and pilates classes alongside healthy plant-based meals.

Having been empty since 2018, the couple quickly realised the building needed improving. In October 2019 the couple moved into the building from Hartwell with their two children and began an extensive refurbishment programme that included 42 new windows and a new floor.

Maxine, a qualified yoga instructor, said: “We hadn’t even been able to hold our official opening launch party when the lockdown was announced.

"I had just started running Hatha yoga and pilates classes in December and business was going well. Many of our customers were residents from the village who were starting to come in before the class to have a chat in the comfortable surroundings."

After lockdown the couple closed their brand new business for three weeks then decided to quickly adapt to the new more restrictive circumstances.

Paul added: “The lockdown has never happened in anyone’s lifetime in the UK. We’d had a budget to spend on refurbishing the building but we didn’t have a budget to spare if we didn’t have an income for weeks on end – it’s just not something we planned for.

“A pandemic was never part of the business plan.”

Prompted by suggestions by residents, the couple decided to promote the café by offering an a takeaway menu.

“We’ve had to adapt our original café menu to suit takeaway orders. We always wanted to offer our customers plant based and vegetarian food that was homely, freshly baked and wholesome but we had to adapt to the restrictions.”

On a Friday and Saturday evening, customers can pre-order food such as freshly-baked pizzas, Mexican burritos, super salads and beer battered cauliflower to take away.

Throughout the rest of the week freshly-brewed coffee, baguettes and home-baked cakes are available to take away.

Classes in Hatha yoga are now also on the menu, although currently taking place outside at the moment in line with government guidelines.

Mats are carefully placed two metres apart and up to five people can join in.

Paul said: “I am hoping in July customers will be able to sit outside at tables with social distancing measures firmly in place. We are getting some whiskey barrels covered with scaffold planks to sit on and looking at ways to implement government guidelines to keep customers safe.

“Our ultimate vision is – when we can go back to some kind of normality - we want people to be able to come and enjoy the benefits of The Roade House - enjoy a fantastic meal, drink or take a class in yoga. And maybe try something new that they haven’t tried before whether that be a new plant-based food or a yoga class. ”

It comes as the Chronicle & Echo has launched it's new campaign - 'Your Town Needs You' - which calls on the people of Northampton to support the things that make the town and county unique.